maven repositories: Absent Code attribute in method - exception

Question

I've been developing a spring/hibernate project and I'm trying to move to maven. I'm experiencing a nasty problem with tests while running build.
As you would ask for it, my current pom.xml is available on github, and the exception trace looks like the following:
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Failed to load ApplicationContext
at org.springframework.test.context.TestContext.getApplicationContext(TestContext.java:157)
at org.springframework.test.context.web.ServletTestExecutionListener.setUpRequestContextIfNecessary(ServletTestExecutionListener.java:103)
at org.springframework.test.context.web.ServletTestExecutionListener.prepareTestInstance(ServletTestExecutionListener.java:73)
at org.springframework.test.context.TestContextManager.prepareTestInstance(TestContextManager.java:313)
at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.createTest(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:211)
at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner$1.runReflectiveCall(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:288)
at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:15)
at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.methodBlock(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:284)
at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:231)
at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:88)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:231)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:60)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:229)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:50)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:222)
at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunBefores.evaluate(RunBefores.java:28)
at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.statements.RunBeforeTestClassCallbacks.evaluate(RunBeforeTestClassCallbacks.java:61)
at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunAfters.evaluate(RunAfters.java:30)
at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.statements.RunAfterTestClassCallbacks.evaluate(RunAfterTestClassCallbacks.java:71)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:300)
at org.springframework.test.context.junit4.SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.run(SpringJUnit4ClassRunner.java:174)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.junit4.JUnit4TestSet.execute(JUnit4TestSet.java:53)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.junit4.JUnit4Provider.executeTestSet(JUnit4Provider.java:123)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.junit4.JUnit4Provider.invoke(JUnit4Provider.java:104)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:616)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.util.ReflectionUtils.invokeMethodWithArray(ReflectionUtils.java:164)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ProviderFactory$ProviderProxy.invoke(ProviderFactory.java:110)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.SurefireStarter.invokeProvider(SurefireStarter.java:175)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.SurefireStarter.runSuitesInProcessWhenForked(SurefireStarter.java:107)
at org.apache.maven.surefire.booter.ForkedBooter.main(ForkedBooter.java:68)
Caused by: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'sessionFactory' defined in class path resource [hibernate.xml]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.ClassFormatError: Absent Code attribute in method that is not native or abstract in class file javax/transaction/SystemException
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1486)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.doCreateBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:524)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:461)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:295)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:223)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.doGetBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:292)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:194)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:608)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.finishBeanFactoryInitialization(AbstractApplicationContext.java:932)
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:479)
at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractGenericContextLoader.loadContext(AbstractGenericContextLoader.java:106)
at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractGenericContextLoader.loadContext(AbstractGenericContextLoader.java:57)
at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractDelegatingSmartContextLoader.delegateLoading(AbstractDelegatingSmartContextLoader.java:100)
at org.springframework.test.context.support.AbstractDelegatingSmartContextLoader.loadContext(AbstractDelegatingSmartContextLoader.java:248)
at org.springframework.test.context.TestContext.loadApplicationContext(TestContext.java:124)
at org.springframework.test.context.TestContext.getApplicationContext(TestContext.java:148)
... 32 more
Caused by: java.lang.ClassFormatError: Absent Code attribute in method that is not native or abstract in class file javax/transaction/SystemException
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:634)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:277)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$000(URLClassLoader.java:73)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:212)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:205)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:321)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:294)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:266)
at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:266)
at org.jboss.logging.Logger.getMessageLogger(Logger.java:2248)
at org.jboss.logging.Logger.getMessageLogger(Logger.java:2214)
at org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration.<clinit>(Configuration.java:176)
at org.springframework.orm.hibernate4.LocalSessionFactoryBean.afterPropertiesSet(LocalSessionFactoryBean.java:277)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.invokeInitMethods(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1545)
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1483)
... 47 more
I've tried to add several dependencies I found on google, but they resulted in another strange exceptions. I read at mkyong.com that this could be because of java files not containing method bodies, but I checked the javaee-api package and it has the javax.transaction.SystemException class implemented.

Answer 1

It turned out that javaee-web-api is missing some method bodies, that's why the following pom.xml dependency:
<dependency>
<artifactId>javaee-web-api</artifactId>
<groupId>javax</groupId>
<version>6.0</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
should be replaced with:
<dependency>
<groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
<artifactId>servlet-api</artifactId>
<version>2.5</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
</dependency>
and it works fine.